Inked Fighter: Complete Collection (MMA MC New Adult Romance) by E. E. Griffin

out.”
    “You’re freaking me out just saying that.” She had her feet on the coffee table, watching public television cartoons. She wasn’t freaked out. Zoe didn’t panic easily.
    “I had like three hundred bucks in cash from my dresses in my top drawer the other day, and the morning after Regan had that guy here, it disappeared.”
    She turned to me, her mouth hanging open. “Mother fucker.”
    “The worst part is that when I went into her room, I found a needle. It had drops of brown liquid in it.”
    “No… Do you think Regan is using?”
    “I don’t know, Zoe. I want to believe she isn’t. You know there’s a heroin problem in this town. That’s what Jessy was taking. She spends an awful lot of time out somewhere. Is she even here now? When is the last time you saw her? She mentioned she’d met Toby at The Clutch.”
    “Ew. That place is gross,” Zoe said, scrunching up her nose.
    “I know. I wouldn’t go there if you paid me.”
    “She does act like a freak all the time now. She’s always hanging on some guy or other. It kind of weirds me out. I just thought it was because of her, you know, issues.”
    “I don’t know for sure. I don’t know if she took the money or if she’s using. When I confronted her, she freaked out and said a bunch of horrible things to me. I swear it’s like she knows exactly what to say to hurt me. You know what I mean?”
    “Uh, yeah! Regan has been a serious bitch since Mom died.”
    “We can’t blame her, Zoe. She’s sick. I just wish she’d accept it and deal with it in a healthy way. If she admitted to her illness, she could get the help she needs — her meds, therapy, all that.”
    “She won’t admit it. She thinks everyone else has the problem.”
    I sighed and went back to my sewing. Regan used to teach piano lessons before Mom died. She had always been a prodigy. Mother paid for her music lessons from the time she was five. Regan even went to special camps throughout most of her childhood and teens. She had been accepted to a private music school in high school, but Mom couldn’t pay the tuition. I’d had to stand in the shadow of a sister who was a musical genius. Regan never made me feel like I was less because of it. She’d always been my hero.
    She had her choice of colleges when she graduated high school. Instead of going to college, Regan decided to stay home and give piano lessons to kids. No one understood why. She said she didn’t want to deal with the pressure of college. Even before her illness became full-blown, there had been signs.
    After we got her out of the psych hospital, a doctor explained to me that mental illnesses like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia tend to manifest in the late teens and early twenties. That was why Regan seemed to be normal growing up but then one day she snapped.
    The change in her was abrupt and obvious. She had been a little odd before the shift, but afterwards she was a different person. It became impossible to have a normal conversation with her. Her behavior was chaotic and unpredictable. She could go from depressed in the morning to manic at night. Sometimes she spouted out her delusions or slung horrifying insults. It was as if the real Regan was gone.

 
    Chapter Three: Damien
    I strolled through the door of my apartment with my bags in my hands and set everything on the small dining room table that sat between the kitchen and the living room.
    I looked around the bright little apartment. It was nice to be away from the clubhouse with its dark, musty rooms and loud alcohol-fueled parties. I’d left Martel a list of necessities for the shop and got out of there.
    Living alone would allow me to keep the strict diet and workout schedule I’d kept back in LA. My routine had been destroyed at the clubhouse. Now I could get back on track.
    When I was done putting everything away, I went downstairs. I wandered down Main Street on the wide sidewalk in the bright summer sun. Some girls across the